Biden And King Abdullah To Deliver Joint Press Conference Shortly

US President Joe Biden and King Abdullah of Jordan are shortly due to deliver a joint press conference following a meeting at the White House - the first White House visit from an Arab leader since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. LIVESTREAM

• An administration statement said the two leaders will seek “an enduring end” to the war that leads to “a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed.”
• Al-Monitor reports: [King Abdullah's] visit is seen as a testament to the key role that Jordan, which shares a long border with Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, plays as a peace broker in their decades-long conflict."
• The meeting comes after President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday that, “a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there..."
• In recent weeks, the Biden administration has more publicly pushed back against Israel’s hardline posturing over a hostage deal and maximalist goals in Gaza, which include the eradication of Hamas and opposition to a sovereign Palestinian state in a post-war settlement.
• A senior administration official told reporters yesterday on the status of ceasefire talks: "I think that framework pretty much is now in place,” but there are still “gaps that need to be closed; some of them are significant…”